Angiosperms distinguished by tending to have parallel in their leaves, flower found in multiples of three, lack of a , etc.

The monocots also can be distinguished from dicots in terms of the morphology of their vascular tissues as well as their pollen grains that is in addition to possessing only a single cotyledon.

The monocots are both a clade and a clade that evolved from what more traditionally would be described as dicots. The single cotyledon of the monocots thus can be viewed as a shared derived character of the monocots.